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SGU

So it's been a year or so now since Stargate: Universe, and by extension, the entire Stargate franchise, died. Time for us to become like Trekies in 1971 and start yammering on about minutia. America doesn't have a manned space program anymore, and we're in the middle of the second worst depression of all time, it's not like we've got anything else to do.

The Destiny is falling apart. Granted, she’s always been falling apart, but following the pasting they took in the mid-season two-parter, they’re much more aggressively falling apart. This is hampered by a lack of spare parts and also a basic lack of understanding of what the parts do in and of themselves. The ship is barely functional, and will not keep together for much longer at all. Reluctantly, Young decides to use Eli’s plan to gate everyone back to earth while they’re inside a star refueling (Yeah, that works now, apparently).

This article was originally posted as a reply to Nwkeys a few weeks back, but I thought it was interesting enough to clean it up a bit and re-post it here.

Twice now on Stargate Universe we've seen people coming through the gate from the Milky Way, and getting hurled across the room.

The "Thrown through the gate" thing is never explained, but my hunch is that it has to do with a difference in momentum between the "In" gate and the "Out" gate. This prompts an interesting (no, really) discussion in physics.

There’s a degree of parallelism between the three-part series premier and this three-part season finale. We’ve got most of the classic SG1 team turning up - Jack, Daniel, Sam - we’ve got the Lucien Alliance, we’ve got people traveling to the ship and things not going exactly as planned, and we’ve got problems with the air supply, and we’ve got yet another Icarus-like planet blowing up. Daniels’ even a cameo on a DVD, just like in the premier.

With tonight’s episode, SGU officially becomes the best SF show on the air. I’d even go so far as to say what they did tonight is superior to anything we’re seeing out of Lost at the moment, and that’s high praise indeed. This is also the episode where “Universe” finally took it’s own place alongside the previous two Stargate shows as an equal, as opposed to the frustrating departure from form it started out as. And best of all: no musical montages tonight!

It’s backstory city here on SGU tonight: We have two parallel plots running, the first, and more important being an extended semi-flashback in which we watch the things that turned Rush (A person) into Rush (An evil scheming jackass). In the other one, we’ve got a fairly standard peril-on-a-planet-with-the-clock-ticking plot. Both take a rather surprising turn, which is becoming the calling card for this series, and really has always been a trademark of the SG franchise, if we’re honest.

I’m still kind of struggling to find the best format for these reviews. Oh, sure, I could - and in fact generally do - slap together a recap, and tack some observations on the end, but that’s really boring to read and frankly pretty darn dull to write (Though I do enjoy the snark in some of the crappier series we review). I feel - in my case, anyway, I can’t speak for the others that write for the site - that it shows a lack of imagination, and also a lack of appreciation for the series themselves. Or at least the good ones, which deserve a little more insight.

It’s seeming more and more like the long slow burn of the first half of the season was justified!

PLAY BY PLAY

Chloe has a bad dream set to a vaguely grungy minor-key song that probably would have seemed really edgy and impressive circa 1996, but it’s just dated, manipulative, and kind of slow now. Afterwards she has a talk with Rush, who’s also been having the same alien-related nightmares.
“Everyone thinks it’s over, that we’re safe, but it’s not over is it?”
“No, it’s not.”

John Scalzi, the creative consultant for Stargate: Universe has mentioned in his blog that he's been signed on for the second season of the series, and is already hard at work looking at scripts and offering feedback.

There may have been an official announcement prior to now, but if there has, I haven't heard about it until Mr. Scalzi mentioned it just now. He goes on to say

The introductory demi-arc to set up the whole premise of “Universe” - a kind of miniseries-within-a-series - concludes tonight offering little in the way of surprises, but a lot of characterization, and a better look at the odd new direction this series is heading in.

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